New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #32

Excellent, I knew  Rich when he was 15.

Lori Milas wrote:

I was listening to an interview with Kevin Costner this morning, talking about his love of the wild west and the stories of how it really came to be.  He just released a movie on Netflix and Max called Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1.  Looking forward to popcorn and watching this today.

It was on HBO or Max some time back. Too brutal and sadistic for me. I don't think I finished watching it. 

Tell your Tony to work on gaining back his sense of agency, but not too rapidly. I have had good days this past year, but not so good days as well. Adjustment and pacing are the keys.

The wild west was straight up genocide. Its romantic to sugar coat it and lots of the folks involved probably didn't understand what they were really doing. Certainly many of the immigrants promised land were simply trying to survive but the whole deal was pretty effin brutal. The absolute worst was when the army would attack indian villages in winter.  SOP was once they ran them out of the village to gather all the teepees, furrs and provisions,put them in a big pile and burn them..  Try being homeless without food or shelter in Wyoming. Montana and the Dakotas in winter and see how long you last.  I just finished reading Bufalo bills autobiography. That's about as romantic and sugar coated as it gets but if you have any critical thinking skills you find yourself going WTF... 

Brandt Allen wrote:

I've been told that protein intake, hydration, and rest, as soon as possible after intense exercise is important, not just the day after.

I’ve seen studies that say it doesn’t matter WHEN you ingest protein as long as you get enough in regards to building muscle.
I keep intending to do some kettlebell work and weights but with climbing four days a week I don’t really have time. I HAVE been doing pull downs, triceps extensions and cable crunches after a session at the bouldering gym though. It makes sense to me to do it on a climbing day so I actually get rest. 

My birthday is this month. Please feel free to ship me a work from home ripped semi clothed barrista cowboy ish kinda dude or two. Or three.

Thank you in advance.  

Ooo!! Page 50!!

Wahoo, peeps, good job!!!

Helen:  

For your birthday… Austin Powers.   

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

The wild west was straight up genocide. Its romantic to sugar coat it and lots of the folks involved probably didn't understand what they were really doing. Certainly many of the immigrants promised land were simply trying to survive but the whole deal was pretty effin brutal. The absolute worst was when the army would attack indian villages in winter.  SOP was once they ran them out of the village to gather all the teepees, furrs and provisions,put them in a big pile and burn them..  Try being homeless without food or shelter in Wyoming. Montana and the Dakotas in winter and see how long you last.  I just finished reading Bufalo bills autobiography. That's about as romantic and sugar coated as it gets but if you have any critical thinking skills you find yourself going WTF... 

Up here in north eastern Wyoming there are historical markers all over the place; this happened here, so and so was here, etc. Mostly it'll be someplace where Custer's army camped, or an Indian village got wiped out. But every once in a while the Indians won. The worst disaster for the army before Custer's defeat was the Fetterman Massacre.

Back around 1990 I made a trip up here from California to climb at Devil's Tower with my friend Brent Ingrham. At the end of the week we decided to drive across Montana, then head south. Of course, we had to do one more climb, so we didn't get started driving 'till afternoon. Back then I-90 from Gillette to Sheridan wasn't finished yet, so from Gillette we were on two lane. It got dark, and we were fried, so we pulled off in a big turnout, threw out our tarps and bags, and crashed. It was a night of nightmares. The kind of dreams that wake you up in a sweat just as the axe is about to hit you in the face. Bloody mess. 

At first light I noticed that Brent was up making coffee. This was most unusual, alpine starts weren't his strong suit. Then he told me that he couldn't sleep. Horrible nightmares. Well, down at the end of the turnout there was a historical marker. We had not noticed it or looked at it the night before. We walked down and read it:

"On this field on the 21st day of december, 1866, three commissioned officers and seventy six privates of the 18th U.S. Infantry and the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and four civilians, under the command of Captain Brevet-Lieutenant Colonel William J. Fetterman were killed by an overwhelming force of Sioux under the command of Red Cloud. There were no survivors."

Their souls were restless that night in 1990 when Brent and I were there. Legend has it that the Indians had a certain fondness for the bugler, who they heard regularly at his post at nearby FT. Kearny. So, unlike the rest of the white men, they killed him instantly, without torture. The detachment from the fort that rode out to find Fetterman's troops couldn't understand why all the men were mutilated except for the bugler, who was simply shot in the head and left leaning against a rock.

Devil's Tower earlier today. A balmy 10°F. No one was climbing.

 This is a really good read and this fellow even though he worked for the army seemed to sympathize with the Indians.. 

www.amazon.com/gp/product/151904349X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lori, if you are going to start climbing at Saddle, you should have Bob put you on Crystal Calisthenics that Herb and I put up.  At 10a and with some holds to actually use it is right up your alley.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Dude. It certainly seems like you train way too fcking hard and are an over training/ repetitive motion injury waiting to happen... 

Not to worry, I’m a wimp and a coward. I can’t crank hard nor lead stuff that’s way beyond my climbing ability.

I also don’t “overdrive” on the campus board, just pull up then pause just enough between movements to let my body recover a bit.

As you’ve mentioned, none of us, including myself are young any more. Injury prevention is key.

Very interesting story Kris---ESP experiences definitely happen. On my first trip to the Bugaboos in 1966, we drove in along the logging road in the evening looking for a place to crash--no Lodge or campsite then. We came upon a group of buildings ---in good shape but seemingly unoccupied. We went up to the largest building and were surprised to find it open and furnished, but, again, with no one there. We decided to take advantage of the situation and sleep indoors for a change after having been camping for over a month. After we got our bags inside, we decided to explore the other buildings a bit. I'm not remembering if there were 4 or 5 of us, but I recall that some went in one direction, the others the opposite way. As soon, however, as I approached the next building, I was hit by the strongest feeling to not open the door, a really strong, almost physical, sense of dread --don't recall ever having a feeling like that before or since. When I said that to the person/ people with me, they said they had the same feeling, so we turned around and quickly and nervously returned to the main building. When we did so, we immediately encountered our friends, also returning, who recounted having the exact same experience. After some discussion, we still decided to spend the night in the main building---all having a restless night despite the relatively comfortable surroundings and we departed hurriedly the next morning. We found the experience very unsettling and mentioned it to some other climbers we met, who responded by saying: "Oh wow, you actually spent the night in the haunted logging camp!!!"

I am really liking this book “The Barbell Prescription Strength Training for Life After 40”.  It is clarifying the difference between exercise and training, and also the difference between developing general fitness versus specific workouts for specific sports. Just what I was beginning to suspect, I want to develop strength and endurance from head to toe (ie. Training)—not just muscles specific to climbing. If I get that far I can focus on finger strength, etc.

If I’m right, training with free weights will make limit climbs easier because I will be a generally stronger person.

Kris, could you share what your Pilates, Yoga and or strength training routine looks like day-to-day?  I’m trying to imagine a program… 

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Also, how do you handle routes that are just too hard for you today but you are still passionate about?  I don’t like to quit. But I also don’t like to beat a dead horse. I have noticed lately that when a project is just too hard, or I hurt myself on a route, it only gets worse if I run.  There are a number of routes I’m thinking of but Dog Day Afternoon  haunts me. I said I’d be back and I will but now it feels more impossible with time.  It’s been 3 years. 

When you get thrown from a horse, you’re supposed to get back in the saddle as soon as possible. Right? But it doesn’t make sense to jump right back on a route you’re not strong enough for.  Maybe there is some healing value to trying it again every now and then?

How do you say goodbye? 

Lori Milas wrote:

How do you say goodbye? 

It's more about acceptance than anything else.

Any climber who has been at it for a while has tried climbs that eventually prove to be too hard.

Congratulations: you've now been at climbing for a while ;)

125lb weight vest while doing finger hangs is the kind of shit you would expect from some 18year old gym rat that's not getting laid.. 

Well, I had no intention of hiking anywhere today, but then I thought I’d just stroll over and look at Crystal calisthenics.   This is not a stroll and this is how far I’ve gotten today. It would take some work to figure out how to get to the base, but oh my gosh, Jan!, It looks beautiful.

It seems you brought this up a few years ago when I was compiling my list of Houser climbs. Do I remember you saying he was with the four of you and somehow never made it onto the FA list? Or am I imagining things.

It’s beautiful up here. It’s going to take some time to sort this all out. And I try not to be fearful, but this sure is good balance training. Every rock can wobble and one false step and I could be having to scooch down on my butt.  

“Every day the dreamers die to see what’s on the other side.”  

Old lady H wrote:

Please feel free to ship me a work-from-home, ripped, semiclothed barrista/cowboyish kinda dude, or two. Or three?

LOL, Helen, that sentence was making my old brain hurt, so I added some punctuation.  And a question mark for Carl.

Our warm and dry weather continues.  I started the New Year right by getting outside on New Year's Day to climb.  It was the BEST DAY OF CLIMBING OF THE YEAR.

Lori Milas wrote:

Kris, could you share what your Pilates, Yoga and or strength training routine looks like day-to-day?  I’m trying to imagine a program… 

—-

Right now everything is catch as catch can for me, so don't look to me for an example. At least several days a week, often four, I'm up and out to the jobsite which is about three hours 'round trip. It's a stress free drive with no traffic in beautiful country, but it's a lot of sitting. So, on those days I'll usually get home, eat, and do relaxing stretches and a few Yoga poses. Being at the site is exercise, not training, but I do always get home feeling worked. On days when I don't have to drive to the site I'll throw down a pretty solid Pilates mat session. Since all my equipment (the reformer, chair, pedapull, and various odds and ends) is in storage, I just do mat right now. But if you make something of it, the mat work is training. Especially core. Right now most of my upper body is body weight work. Gillette has a fantastic modern indoor rec center which has a good climbing feature designed to look like a miniature Devil's Tower. It's set into a well in a three story open area, so it's tall enough. Routes from 5-easy to 5.12. There is a small community of climbers, there are some good routes, and I get in for free as a local resident senior citizen. The apartment complex we're in has a "Fitness Center" and one thing they have is an Aerodyne rowing machine. I love this machine, and since mine is in storage I was delighted to see that in there.

So, for now it's pretty hard for me to get into a rhythm. We hope to be in the house by May, and everything will come together then. 

Who’s going to create the next thread, Lori?   

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

125lb weight vest while doing finger hangs is the kind of shit you would expect from some 18year old gym rat that's not getting laid.. 

135 pounds…   

Hey, we got another 50 pages!